How one blog cut load time from 8s to 2s

How one blog cut load time from 8s to 2s

A reader ran a recipe site with 40 huge photos on the homepage. Each one was a 4MB file straight from a phone camera. The page took 8 seconds to appear.

Here is what she did:
— Installed an image plugin (a plugin is just an add-on that gives WordPress new abilities). This one shrinks photos automatically.
— It converted images to WebP, a newer format that looks the same but weighs much less.
— Average photo dropped from 4MB to 380KB.

Result: the page loaded in 2 seconds. Same pictures, same quality, eight times less weight.

Think of it like vacuum-packing a suitcase: same clothes, half the space.

In plain words: shrinking your photos is the single fastest speed win for most beginner sites.